Doing H20 changes with SPS at waterline?

[Buzzword]

I see these tanks with acros and other SPS at the waterline or very close to it. How do you do water changes without exposing your corals to air/light and damaging them?
Do you put water back in at the same time you are pulling water out? Would love any ideas on this as some of my acros are getting close to being out of the water when doing water changes. Don't want to burn them with MH or damage/kill them being out of the water too long.
Thanks for any input.

 

[Arkayology]

The acros being outside the water for awhile is not a bad thing. There are even people who think that it is a good thing. Think low tide.

 

[r-balljunkie]

Corals are very resilient. its low tide right now and there's miles and miles of exposed reef around the island i live on. clams, SPS etc totally out of the water with the sun beating down on them for hours at a time

i wouldnt worry about it....

 

[blakers82]

Sweet pics! Buzzword, this shouldn't be a large concern.

 

[barjam]

Corals are very resilient. its low tide right now and there's miles and miles of exposed reef around the island i live on. clams, SPS etc totally out of the water with the sun beating down on them for hours at a time

i wouldnt worry about it....

Only time I have had trouble is if they get too cold. I have a basement in wall tank and the fish room is regularly below 70 degrees.

 

[allsps40]

Sps can be out of the water safely for a while. Just doing a quock water change will not hurt them at all. They will slime up though but it is normal.

 

[sponger0]

I agree. My SPS are exposed to air when I do waterchanges and has never hurt them

 

[Acropolooza]

As said I expose about 4 inches of sps to air for 3 mins and nothing ever happens

 

[fishguy597]

If you have a sump they won't hit the air

 

[psusocr]

If you have a sump they won't hit the air

Why would that matter? I have a sump and mine always hit air for about 20 min a water change, they are totally fine

 

[fishguy597]

Why would that matter? I have a sump and mine always hit air for about 20 min a water change, they are totally fine

I'm not saying its going to hurt anything. I don't know how you have yours set up but the water level in my tank stays the same all the time. The sump. level may vary but that's it.

 

[psusocr]

I'm not saying its going to hurt anything. I don't know how you have yours set up but the water level in my tank stays the same all the time. The sump. level may vary but that's it.

OH you got confused thats all, the OP asked when your doing water changes for your sps to be out of the water, not every day normal operation.

 

[fishguy597]

Gotcha . its the same for me wether day to day or doing a water change. I just fill my sump. with water and pull water out till I get to my normal sump water level. I also don't have real high baffles .

 

[cdness]

Gotcha . its the same for me wether day to day or doing a water change. I just fill my sump. with water and pull water out till I get to my normal sump water level. I also don't have real high baffles .

Works if you have room in your sump for all the extra water. I wish I had an extra 20G of room in my sump, but the water level would rise too much and throw the skimmer off. I just shut down return pumps and make sure I am draining the old water.

I have corals hit the air all the time when doing water changes. Never has it hurt them.

 

[Buzzword]

Thanks for the replies! I understand that they can be out of water for a short time and that they will have slime build up after this. I cannot turn off pumps and keep water level up high enough so I wondered if people were pulling water from sump or tank and filling at about the same time. So I will not stress over it and watch my corals to make sure there are no issues.
Thanks again all of you that replied.

 

[MammothReefer]

I pull water from tank it's to hard to siphon from the sump. I'll drain my frag tank all the way down leaving my corals exposed while I do the water change. I have a low turn over rate w/that tank so I like to try to replace as much as I can when I do my water changes. Only thing I ever shut off is my skimmer so the pump doesn't run dry.

 

[OneReef]

I let my sump back siphon till its full. I'll first turn off skimmer so it doesn't over flow. Then I drain what I need out of the sump with a small pump, not a siphon. If I need more , I'll drain out out of the tank, but it's the last water I drain out so I can pump new water back in within a few minutes.

 

[kwl1763]

Just make sure if you do expose SPS (I do it all the time with mine since they grow to the surface) then just make sure you turn any MH lights off so you don't cook them. the heat of the MH = not good with no water in between. Made that mistake once in my life.

 

[Ocean View]

Change water every week and my sps are out of the water for around twenty min. each time. The only thing I notice is the sweet swell of the corals slimming up.

 

[pwwfish]

Last summer, we lost power for over 22 hours. For the first few hours I did try to keep my three colonies of blue mille, red planet and green slimmer wet every 20-30min but finely I gave up and I left for work. After 14 hours without power and only one circulation pump running I didn't lose any corals. Just tips of my mille suffered, but did came back couple weeks later.